Since the passage of California Assembly Bill (AB) 5 in 2019, there have been subsequent legal challenges and revised legislation that continues to shape the status of independent contractors and related employment law issues in California. Keeping track of all the cases and exemptions related to AB 5 is almost as difficult as determining who can be an independent contractor.
AB 5, which became effective in January 2020, codified and broadened the California Supreme Court 2018 decision Dynamex Operations West, Inc v. Superior Court, in which it set forth the “ABC” test for determining whether a worker should be classified as an independent contractor. Under the test a worker may be classified as an independent contractor if the employer can satisfy the following criteria:
The following are some of the recent developments relating to AB 5 and independent contractors in the Golden State.
AB 5 and Its Retroactive Application
In January 2021, the California Supreme Court held in Vazquez v. Jan-Pro Franchising International, that its Dynamex decision applies retroactively to independent contractor classification claims and decisions/conduct pre-dating Dynamex.
AB 5 and Federal Preemption
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